Graduate Awards and Awardees

Awards for the Best Graduate Student Teacher and Teaching Assistant

Amount: Best Teacher $300; Best GA $100

The aim of these awards is to express recognition for a graduate student’s contribution to the prime mission of the University: the excellence of teaching.

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Awardees

Best Graduate Student Teacher

  • 2023 John Madden 
  • 2022 Kaitlyn Schodt 
  • 2020 Devin Ulrich 
  • 2019 Darin Brown 
  • 2018 Darin Brown 
  • 2016 Patrick Coulombe

Best Graduate Student Teaching Assistant

  • 2019 Breannan Howell 

Barbara Goldman Garland Memorial Scholarship

Amount: $1,000

The aim of this scholarship is to honor a graduate student who significantly contributes to clinical service or clinical research for adolescent children and who demonstrates professional integrity. The winner of this award will have her/his name engraved on the public plaque listing winners of the Barbara Goldman Garland Memorial Scholarship in the Graduate Student Lounge, Department of Psychology, UNM.

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Awardees

  • 2025 Amanda Cipolla & Hayley VangeJagt 
  • 2024 Naila deCruz-Dixon & Hayley VangerJagt 
  • 2023 Ayesha Bhatia 
  • 2022 Molly Pylypciw 
  • 2021 Suzanne Vaccaro 
  • 2020 Isabel Solis 
  • 2019 Rebecca Avila-Rieger 
  • 2018 Rebecca Rieger 
  • 2017 Jeremiah Simmons 
  • 2016 Melissa Pielech 

Benjamin Franklin Haught Memorial Scholarship Award

Amount: $3,000 for Summer Funding

The aim of this scholarship award is to provide 20 hour (.50 FTE) summer financial support to a doctoral candidate who demonstrates excellence in research and academics. The scholarship is awarded to provide encouragement to a student to focus on research and on completing her/his Ph.D. dissertation in a timely manner. The student who receives this award may supplement her/his scholarship with no more than another ½ time appointment during the summer, thus having time to concentrate in completion of her/his dissertation. The funds will be available for the summer and the winner of this award will have their name engraved on the public plaque listing winners of the Haught Memorial Scholarship in the Graduate Student Lounge, Department of Psychology, UNM.

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Awardees

  • 2025 Ethan Campbell & John Madden
  • 2024 Alexandra Hernandez-Vallant
  • 2023 Tia Donaldson
  • 2022 Juan Pena 
  • 2021 Kristen Vitek 
  • 2020 Kathryn Fokas 
  • 2019 Kelsey Serier 
  • 2018 Jacqueline Janowich 
  • 2017 Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa 
  • 2016 Nicholas Grebe 
  • 2015 Laurie Sheffen

 

Bertha Melgoza Clinical Psychology Award

Amount: $1,000

The aim of this scholarship is to recognize a Clinical graduate student early in their graduate career who demonstrates outstanding promise in research, clinical work, or both.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Michaela Milillo & Felicia Tuchman 
  • 2023 Ikela Moniz-Lewis 
  • 2022 Catalina Pacheco 
  • 2020 Alexandra Hernandez-Vallant 

Clinical and Experimental Student Paper Awards for the Best Written Papers by Graduate Students

Amount: Clinical Students: 1st Place: $300; 2nd Place: $100 Experimental Students: 1st Place: $300; 2nd Place: $100

The aim of these awards is to encourage productivity and quality of publications in the graduate community.

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Awardees

Best Clinical Paper, Ist place

  • 2024 Meredith Blackwell & Hanna Hebden
  • 2023 Victoria Votaw 
  • 2022 Hannah Carlon 
  • 2021 Elena Stein 
  • 2020 Victoria Votaw 
  • 2019 Gabriela Lopez 
  • 2018 Corey Roos 
  • 2017 Adam Wilson 
  • 2016 Corey Roos 

Best Clinical Paper, 2nd place

  • 2018 Megan Kirouac 
  • 2017 Robert Bailey 
  • 2016 Robert Bailey 


Best Experimental Paper, lst place

  • 2024 Julia Sheronova 
  • 2023 Mark Lavelle 
  • 2022 Brett Anderson 
  • 2021 Carlos Maestas-Olguin 
  • 2020 Benjamin Gibson 
  • 2019 Jacqueline Janowich 
  • 2018 J. Michael Maurer 
  • 2017 Daniel Barto 
  • 2016 J. Michael Maurer

Best Experimental Paper, 2nd place

  • 2019 Benjamin Gibson 
  • 2018 Darin Brown 

David J. Smith, Ph.D., Psychology Graduate Student Award

Amount: $1,500

The aim of this award is to honor a graduate student who shows evidence of excellence and compassion in the field of clinical psychology with adults, whether in terms of clinical work or research, or both.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Ikela Moniz-Lewis 
  • 2023 Hannah Carlon 
  • 2022 Haley VanderJagt 
  • 2021 Victoria Votaw 
  • 2020 Elena Stein 
  • 2019 Kathryn Fokas 
  • 2018 Kelsey Serier 

Dr. Al S. Fedoravicius Clinical Psychology Award

Amount: $1,000

The aim of this scholarship is to recognize a Clinical graduate student who demonstrates outstanding service to clinical work, especially work that pertains to serving the underserved, such as veterans.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Hannah Carlon 
  • 2023 Ikela Moniz-Lewis 
  • 2022 Kaitlyn Schodt 

Frances Everett Letchworth Psychology Student Support Fund

Amount: $3,000

The aim of this award is to support excellence in the research of graduate students in psychology.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Meredith Blackwell (1st place) & Elizabeth Hodgdon (2nd place) 
  • 2023 Suzanne Vaccaro 

Jackson-Miller Graduate Fellowship

The aim of this fellowship is to establish funding for graduate students in clinical psychology who consider it a privilege to serve those who are poor. The graduate fellowship recipient is to be placed with a program or agency in New Mexico that serves the poorest of the poor and to work directly with this clientele. The recipient’s time commitment to the placement agency will be 10 hours per week (.25 FTE) for one semester (either Fall or Spring) of the academic year.  The winner of this award will also have her/his name engraved on the public plaque listing winners of the Jackson-Miller Fellowship in the Graduate Student Lounge, Department of Psychology, UNM

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Awardees

  • 2024 Felicia Tuchman 
  • 2023 Meredith Blackwell
  • 2022 Ikela Moniz-Lewis & Catalina Pacheco
  • 2021 Alexandra Hernandez-Vallant & Juan Pena
  • 2017 Kelly Erickson 
  • 2016 Kelly Erickson 
  • 2015 Elizabeth Stein

Most Interdisciplinary Work

Amount: $100

The aim of this award is to honor a graduate student whose first- or sole-authored empirical or theoretical contributions to science (published or work in progress) transcend standard disciplinary boundaries and thereby encourage interdisciplinary thought and practices. The applicant must identify two or more disciplines that relate to their contribution. Some examples of disciplines that the applicant could use include: scientific fields outside psychology (e.g., biology, anthropology), healthcare (health), technological, engineering, mathematical, computational, or public service fields. Sub-fields of psychology (e.g., social psychology vs. cognitive psychology) do not count as independent disciplines.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Jegason Diviant & Catalina Pacheco 
  • 2023 Samantha Rodriguez 
  • 2022 Danielle Sanchez-Combs 

Most Novel and Innovative Work

Amount: $100

The aim of this award is to honor a graduate student whose first- or sole-authored empirical or theoretical contributions to science (published or in progress) stand out (relative to the work of her/his mentor) as her/his own, independently-minded and motivated creation. The contribution should have the capacity to generate new hypotheses, phenomena, or ways of thinking within the discipline or field of study.

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Awardees

  • 2024 Jegason Diviant & Jacob Spinks 
  • 2023 Brett Andersen 
  • 2022 Victoria Votaw 
  • 2021 Danielle Sanchez-Combs 

Quad-L Master's Award

Amount: 1,000

The Quad-L Master’s Award was established to provide financial support for research conducted by Pre-Master’s graduate students in the Department of Psychology who are conducting research in the area of learning, memory, and cognition. One award will be granted per academic year. Scientific merit and need for financial support will be considered in making funding decisions. Questions may be directed to the Quad-L faculty custodian, Derek Hamilton:  dahamilt@unm.edu.

 

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Awardees

  • 2023 Gabriela Acosta 
  • 2022 Monica Goncalves-Garcia 
  • 2021 Jegason Diviant 

Rosenblum Award

Amount: $1,000

The aim of this award is to honor a graduate student who shows excellence in child psychology or clinical family psychology. The winner of this award will have her/his name engraved on the public plaque listing winners of the Rosenblum Award in the Graduate Student Lounge, Department of Psychology, UNM.

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Awardees

  • 2025 Ayesha Bhatia & Amanda Cipolla
  • 2024 Maria McCready & Molly Pylypciw & Suzanne Vaccaro
  • 2023 Elizabeth Hodgdon 
  • 2022 Maria McCready 
  • 2021 Suzanne Vaccaro 
  • 2020 Isabel Solis 
  • 2019 Nicole Kubinec 
  • 2018 Rebecca Rieger 
  • 2017 Melissa Pielech 
  • 2016 Natalia Moss 
  • 2015 Melissa Pielech

Sandia Casino Responsible Gaming Scholarships

Amount: $5,000

The aim of this scholarship is to increase awareness of and treatment for problem gaming by supporting a psychology graduate student who works in the area of addictions. Though the scholarship is available for and applicable to ALL addictions work, preference will be given to students working in the area of gambling addiction (either research or clinical work).  A total of 10 scholarships, each worth $5,000, were awarded this year.

This fund has been established by Sandia Resort and Casino. Sandia Resort and Casino is committed to being a leader in providing compulsive gambling services in New Mexico. One of their goals is to provide students, who at any point in their respective careers may come in contact with someone who is suffering from gambling addiction, the ability to have access to available resources. Sandia Resort and Casino would like to help build for the future by having students become familiar with compulsive gambling and the training and certification opportunities available to them.

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Awardees

2023/2024
Alexis Burks
Hannah Carlon
Alexander Connolly
Amander Cipolla
Caty Enders
Hanna Hebden
Michaela Milillo
Ikela Moniz-Lewis
Regina Tahk
Felicia Tuchman

2022/2023
Garima Singh
Ikela Moniz-Lewis
Jalene Herron
Monica Goncalves-Garcia
Violette Cloud

2019/2020
Elena Stein
Victoria Votaw
Benjamin Gibson
Jamie Smith
Kathryn Fokas

2018/2019
A.J. O'Sickey
Adam Wilson
Benjamin Gibson
Bradley Robert
Carlos Olguin
Karly Edwards
Kathryn Fokas

The Haught Distinguished Graduate Lecture Award

Amount: $1,000

The aim of this award is to honor a doctoral candidate who demonstrates research excellence and professional integrity. The awarded doctoral candidate will be invited to present a lecture, and will be presented with a personal plaque commemorating the award. The student’s name will also be engraved on the public plaque listing winners of the Haught Lecture Award in the Graduate Student Lounge, Department of Psychology, UNM.

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Awardees

  • 2025 Nicole Reyna
  • 2024 Meredith Blackwell
  • 2023 Victoria Votaw 
  • 2022 Elena Stein 
  • 2021 Kelsey Serier 
  • 2020 Adam Wilson 
  • 2019 Justina Avila-Rieger 
  • 2018 Corey Roos 
  • 2017 Andrei Vakhtin 
  • 2016 Patrick Coulombe 
  • 2015 Breanna Greenfield